Many CBSE affiliated schools of Odisha capital have started admissions for +2 even before the 10th examination results are published. Worse still, they clearly rule out refund of admission fees in case a student fails the 10th examination.

The 10th examinations were over only 10 days back and the evaluation of papers is yet to begin. However, some of the schools have already completed their +2 admissions while the rest intend to wrap it up by April 15. The entrance test for admission to these schools was conducted in March last week itself.

While the schools are doing it clearly to maximize admission to their schools and to retain their current students, the CBSE authorities and School and Mass Education Department are sitting idle.

On the other hand, given the competition, the parents are left with little choice but to cough up the admission fees to ensure a seat for their kids.

The schools charge Rs 1000 on an average for just the admission forms. Given that almost 1500-2000 students appear for the entrance examination, the amount raised from just the admission test wroks out to a neat Rs 15 to 20 lakhs. Then there is the admission proper, which costs an average of Rs 50, 000 in any decent CBSE school. The amount collected from admissions thus is too mouth-watering a prospect for the schools to let go of.

When we spoke to the principal of a leading school in Bhubaneswar, he actually tried to pass it off as a ‘student-friendly’ move while giving a vague answer to the question on refund of money for students who fail the test.

“We are doing it early so that the students can understand their syllabus better. We will start the session early after the summer vacations are over. Most of these students score CGPA 9 or 10 during internal exams and there is no way they are going to fail. We would, however, not be able to refund the money if a student fails as we reserve the seat for him,” said the Principal.

Left with little choice, all that parents can do is to crib and complain.

“They are getting the early admission done to ensure students don’t switch over to CHSE or other better schools in case of a good performance. Taking the money early means the seat is secured. The CBSE and School and Mass Education Department are aware, but they won’t act,” said a concerned guardian of a student.

The regional director of CBSE, however, assured us to take action if the guardian of any student complains about the refund and attributed the early admission to lack of specific guidelines.

“We don’t have any specific guidelines for the schools to start admission before or after publication of the results. The schools, however, need to refund the admission money if a student doesn’t intend to carry on his studies there. We would take action if any parent comes to us before the publication of results regarding the refund money,” said A S Verma, Regional Director of CBSE.